Photo by Julie Mangin "In the garden, Autumn is, indeed the crowning glory of the year, bringing us the fruition of months of thought and care and toil. And at no season, safe perhaps in Daffodil time, do we get such superb colour effects as from August to November." - Rose G. Kingsley, The Autumn Garden The morning started chilly but turned in to a beautiful day! We thought it would be a short, quiet day but as gardeners started trickling in, we got a lot of work done getting the beds ready for winter and harvesting for MANNA. We always love to share our garden with visitors. We were lucky to have 3 groups today. A family of 3 with an enthusiastic gardener amongst them enjoyed the edible part of the garden. Two different gentlemen from different parts of the world enjoyed Bill’s enthusiastic tour. Early in the morning, we had a photographer taking pictures of our beautiful garden. We are thrilled when more people find out about our little gem. Garden Reports: Compost Central: Kristy Hardy Marlow and I combined the finished or almost finished compost from bins 2 and 5 into bin 6. The other master gardeners were preparing beds and taking compost and all commented on how beautiful it looked. We then turned the compost from bin 1 into 2 and from bin 4 into 5, adding new green material from the garden and watering. We plan to continue adding the new material to our piles until the garden closes at the end of the month. Herb and Fragrance Garden: Kathy Tsai This week's activity consisted of trimming certain plants back and deadheading still others, just to keep them looking presentable for a little while longer. It won't be long before we truly "winterize" by taking up tender plants and moving them to their winter home (In Marty's basement) and dig up the dahlia tubers for storage. Some of us hate to let go of fall, I guess. Photos by Julie Mangin- Kathy, Cindy, Maria and Darlene enjoying Herb and Fragrance garden. Butterfly Garden: Peggy Stanford Today was definitely a chilly fall morning in the garden. We performed the usual trimming and de-heading. We moved on to severely trimming back the Viburnums in the garden which will provide more sun to the area. Thanks to Tom, John and Cindy for their assistance Photos by Julie Mangin Children’s Therapeutic Garden: Sandy Occhipinti What a gorgeous day to play in the garden! The students planted two kinds of garlic, Inchelium Red (softneck) and Northern White (hardneck), and they harvested some lettuce, chard, and beans for Manna and mouse melons that didn't make it into the bags. There were a few hot peppers and okra but the plants are definitely slowing down in the cooler weather. A few green tomatoes are still hanging on to the mostly dead plants. We started on our garden cleanup, pulling the vines off the bean towers, removing dead squash plants and some of the zinnias. Lots more to pull up next week! Therapeutic Horticultural Beds: Virginia White- Mahaffey The intense rains of last week coupled with the chilly Sunday and Monday nights nudged a few plants closer to their final production. Deadheading, cleanup, and removal were Tuesday's priorities, along with weeding. The achillea millifolium, echinacea purpurea, and agastache are finished flowering for the season, and the marigolds are sagging. Nonetheless, the ageratum is blooming defiantly, the gomphrena haggeana (both purple and red) is flourishing, and the basil is flowering in spectacular fashion. Fresh zinnia elegans and fennel can also still be harvested in good quantity. The two recently planted mums are blooming in profusion. Some celosia blooms remain vibrant but they are likely in their last strong week. The artemisia remains respectable but may not be worthy of project inclusion. Photos by Virginia White- Mahaffey 100 Square Foot Garden: Mary Anne Normile Four-fifths of the 100 Square Foot Garden has been put to bed for the winter. We gave into the inevitability of shorter days and cooler temperatures and removed several of the remaining plants, which will deprive the voracious harlequin bugs of their sustenance. We harvested pole beans; jalapeno, fish, and Scotch Bonnet peppers; garlic and regular chives; lettuce, and Swiss chard. The leaning Tower of Beans was dismantled (sigh). Beds were prepped, compost added, and crimson clover cover crop sowed to add Nitrogen to the soil and suppress winter weeds. Photo by Julie Mangin Photo by Robin Ritterhoff- Irma and Mary Anne planting garlic Container Garden: Carol Olsen Well, it seemed the right time to pull out our two tomato plants, but not before harvesting a few green tomatoes. As evening temperatures are dipping down, Robin and I emptied the terracotta pots and stored them in the shed. But, we couldn't quite yet say goodbye to the marigolds that were planted in one of them, so we transplanted them to one of the containers vacated by a tomato plant. A pot of herbs is still looking wonderful. We are hopeful that they will winter over and greet us again in the spring. It seems a hard decision, but the other containers probably should be emptied next week and stored for the winter. Photos by Julie Mangin- Maro watering containers Small Fruits: Patty Oseroff Everything is looking good with the fruit garden. We're able to weed the Paw Paw Patch and lay down some Red and white clover. Thanks to all that helped it was a lot of work, it looks great. Edibles: Erica Smith The veggie garden is winding down! We pulled out many of the remaining summer plants, although for now we have left the mouse melons and the Tromboncino squash, both of which are still producing, and some Malabar spinach as well. Salad tables were emptied (so now Joe can fix the Leaning Table of Derwood) and several beds were cleared and given the newspaper-and-compost treatment. Harvest included lettuce, chard, New Zealand spinach, Malabar spinach, mouse melons, squash, a few tomatoes, and kohlrabi. We'll leave the fall greens in place for future harvests. Garlic and potato onions (a winter-hardy kind that will produce a cluster of bulbs next year) went in the ground - last planting of the season. And we pulled out tons of holy basil, which was a little too prolific. Next year: three plants and the rest come out! A few more harlequin bugs and other brassica pests were condemned to a soapy water bath after one of the covers blew off. More cleaning up next week. If anyone wants to take home some of the roselle hibiscus fruits (you can make tea out of them) feel free to cut a branch or two when you are at Derwood. Photo by Robin Ritterhoff: Joslyn picking lettuce Tomato beds: Dan Ward Well, the tomato bed is officially closed for the season. A sad time, indeed. However, we are already thinking about what we are going to do next year. It will be another year for Derwood. Photo by Robin Ritterhoff: Dan Ward MANNA: Robin Ritterhoff 48 pounds delivered to Manna, YTD total: 1470 pounds. Photo by Robin Ritterhoff BALES: Robin Ritterhoff We harvested the remaining ripe cherry tomatoes & hot peppers in the bales, then undertook the work of disassembling the structure holding the bales in place and supporting its plants. Next week we’ll use the hay that remains to mulch the bed after it is covered with newspaper, to be ready for planting next spring. Closing Comments: Lily and Bill Don’t forget, next week is the shed clean up and tool maintenance day! Joe will lead the tool maintenance workshop. Rain date is October 25. Last work day at Derwood is October 25. Beds are being put to bed and the end of the year is upon us. We will still be working on the outside storage area. If you have any paving stones, or bricks that you no longer need, please drop them off at Derwood. Again, last call for receipts! End of season party at Maria’s on November 1st! Thanks for all the hard work! Photo by Julie Mangin- Joe and Marlow
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